The Bobbsey Twin series of adventure stories by Laura Lee Hope were published between 1904 and 1979. Laura Lee Hope is a pseudonym used by several different authors over the years.

The Elsie Dinsmore series by Martha Finley were published between 1967 and 1905. Elsie’s mother was dead, and Elsie faced many moral conflicts (and seemed to constantly feel guilty for one minor offense or another) as she grew up in her grandparent’s home.

An aside–Grandma WAS NOT reading the Nancy Drew series (first book published in 1930) , the Hardy Boys (first book published in 1927), or the Betsy and Tacy series (first book published in 1940).

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I love how much research you do to shed light on your grandma’s diary entries! I was a huge *Bobbsey Twins* fan when I was little. Didn’t know that there were several different authors in the series using the same pseudonym, or that it was possible my grandmother could have read some of the first volumes in the series when she was little, too.

She could also have been reading one of the Anne of Green Gables books. They were written toward the end of the 1800s and at the beginning of the 1900s. I am surprised to learn that the Bobbsey Twins was written so long ago. When I was little I had one or two of the books which my mother read to me. I don’t remember enjoying them too much.

I’m so behind in reading your posts. I’ll have to come some afternoon soon and catch up.

Anne of Green Gables would make sense. It seems like the sort of thing that a teen-aged girl would like.

When I was researching this post, I’d thought that The Bobbsey Twins would fall into the same time period as Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, and was surprised to discover that it began earlier. The early books in the series were later rewritten to “modernize” them. The Bobbsey Twins was written in 1904. The Bobbsey Twins in the Country and The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore were written in 1907.

Hello

I look forward to sharing my grandmother's diary with relatives and friends. Helena Muffly (Swartz) kept a diary from 1911-1914. She was 15 years old when she began this diary. I plan to post these entries one day at a time—exactly 100 years after she wrote them. I hope you enjoy this glimpse back to a slower paced time.

The header is a picture of the farm where my grandmother lived when she wrote this diary. It is located in Northumberland County in central Pennsyvlania about a mile outside of McEwenvsille. My father said that the buildings look similar to what they looked like when he was a child.